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Okay this one's slightly edited

Like Louis Pang always tend to say, when you get the shot right the first time on camera, you got it right. The near perfect shot. I cannot agree more to this.

Last week (or was it two weeks ago), L and myself went to a suburb called Karawara for a minishoot because I once saw a picturesque spot for a shoot. It was a lamp outside the shopping mall that generates the type of light that I personally think is attractive when combined with a subject (or should I say, model). My subject (model) that night was none other than L

It took a while (maybe 5-10 minutes with about 10 shots?) for me to get the right combination of settings on the camera. I was armed with my trusty 18-55mm VR kit lens and 55-200mm VR lens, but I only managed to utilise the kit lens. I am somewhat more confident with the kit lens for reasons unknown. I had my SB600 speedlight with the “fake” Sto-fen diffuser on as well.

Looking up

I could only wish I had a tripod or at least a monopod instead of upping the ISO, but I hadn’t got a choice at that time.

There was a purplish light there, so it's not the camera playing up

I love how L managed to pose for me although at times she could be reluctant. There were quite a lot of people walking past us with some cars and some stares, but we managed to ignore the passers-by and kept the shoot going.

Of course, the night was not without its downs. I just can’t seem to get the white balance right on some shots. Perhaps it was the lighting of the location or perhaps I am just too much of a noob. I tried pre-setting the white balance with my white cardboard (foam), but the results were still unsatisfactory. Then again, other than a few shots of a different lighting, the colours were pretty accurate.

A little overexposed, I know, but the "correctly" exposed shot is not as attractive as this one

I shot in jpg because I had no intention of major editing to begin with, and was not really keen to do any post-processing.

There’s so many good shots that I don’t know which one to put up.

Actually, part of the reason of these unedited photos is because I’m still stuck with my laptop which takes me so long to edit the images.

Take for example the first picture in this entry. I took at least 20 minutes just to edit that single shot. Do the math yourself.

Easily my favourite shot

Another reason that I didn’t edit the photos is because I messed around with the gamma and settings of the laptop LCD two weeks ago, causing my monitor to be inaccurate in colours. My plan is to hire a Spyder monitor calibrator from the local Gerry Gibbs CameraHouse after my desktop is set up. They have a $30 hire fee for 3 days, so I can calibrate both my laptop and desktop monitor as well.

If only this shot wasn't overexposed. We tried again and again to get the same shot but didn't managed to after that.

We both got too cold after the shoot and decided to call it a night after about 30-40 minutes.

Possible related posts..

• May 27, 2009 -- Night Out with L (3)
• February 4, 2009 -- And so.. (3)
• December 10, 2009 -- Perth Skyline at Night – Pt 2 (1)
• November 18, 2009 -- Perth Skyline at Night (4)
• September 4, 2009 -- Assignments, assignments, assignments. (0)
• August 22, 2009 -- The Man with the Ball @ Forrest Place, Perth (2)
• August 9, 2009 -- More Hyundai i30 SX Photos (0)